08-02-2013 Event

Threats to health care in armed conflicts and other emergencies are widespread and affect individuals, families and communities. As part of the ICRC-led Health Care in Danger project, several expert consultations have taken place since 2012. Tehran will host a workshop focusing on the role and responsibilities of National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies to deliver safe health care in armed conflict. This will be the second event of its nature following the one held in Oslo in December 2012.

Violence and insecurity increase the acute need for emergency and medical assistance when they are most vital. Health-care workers of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement provide safe access to health care for victims of violence in armed conflict; while in many circumstances they are directly targeted by the same situation of violence. The ICRC has decided to address this humanitarian challenge together with the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies globally in order to strengthen the protection of the sick and wounded and to improve the safe delivery of effective and impartial health care in armed conflict and other emergencies.

Organizers

The International Committee of the Red CrossThe Iranian Red Crescent Society

Participants

Participants are experts in emergency health and disaster management and medical health coordination. Fourteen national societies from Egypt, Germany, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Nepal, Norway, Palestine, Spain, Syria, Uganda, the UK and Iran as well as specialists from the IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies) and ICRC. Representatives from the Ministry of Health of Iraq and Ivory Coast will also be among the participants to share their experiences with national societies.

Objectives

1. Develop a shared and comprehensive understanding of the concrete safety and security challenges faced by National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in providing and delivering health care in armed conflict and other emergencies;

2. Identify measures National Societies can take to ensure that their health-care personnel can gain safer access to victims in need of health care in armed conflict and other emergencies, and to determine how other stakeholders, including public authorities, armed security forces, any other actors involved in the violence as well as the other components of the Movement, can contribute to addressing and resolving this issue;

3. Propose ways of fostering the integration and implementation of such measures in the contexts in which National Societies work.

Discussions will focus on the following three themes:

1. The challenges National Societies face in delivering health care in armed conflict and other emergencies;2. Meeting the challenges from an operational dimension; concrete measures increase acceptability, access to victims and operational security;3. Meeting the challenges from an advocacy and communication point of view to improve the safe delivery of health care in armed conflict and other emergencies.